The Best
by Demi-Trainer98
Summary: -discontinued- Some people want to be pokemon trainers. Some people want to be the best pokemon trainer. For Kevin Banks it isn't his desire it was a necessity. Armed with nothing but a few training suppplies and his trusty vulpix, he will be The Best.
1. Fire Type Desires

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon AT ALL! However all original characters in this fanfiction belong to me! Enjoy.

It all started when my mother and father gave me, Kevin Banks, my first pokemon as a tenth birthday present.

I decided I wanted to be a pokemon trainer when I was four years old. I decided I wanted to be the best pokemon trainer when I was seven years old. I knew becoming the best wasn't going to be an easy task. I knew it would involve a lot of hard work, but I didn't care. I suppose this need for perfection is the reason I graduated Trainer's School with such rapidity. I knew I had the capability to be the best. I was smart. I read a lot. Every night I read the dictionary so I could widen my vocabulary. Because of my desire for knowledge I was picked on. Names like dork, geek, and nerd were tossed around. Anything other students knew got under my skin, they would do. But I controlled my temper. The best has to have control.

By age nine I was out of school. Every spare moment I had was spent trying to figure out which pokemon I wanted as my first pokemon, my starter. I knew I wanted a fire type right off the bat. Fire is strong, beautiful, and exciting. Also, many trainers didn't start out with a fire type because sometimes they can be hard to handle, and I knew that if I wanted to be the best trainer I'd have to set myself apart from the other trainers.

Both of my parents had been trainers, also they had both finished the gym circuit. My father, Nolan Banks, received a machop on his tenth birthday. He is a machamp now, and his name is Jacob. My mother, Susan Banks, was given an oddish as her first pokemon. Her oddish's name _was _Summer. A year into my mother's journey, when she was eleven, something bad happened.

Summer had been a shiny oddish, so she was very rare. This was the reason my mother almost died. One night a gang of pokemon the thieves was chasing my mother. She decided to hide in an abandoned old barn for the night, but they found her. They tried to take Summer, who was a gloom by then, but my mother wouldn't have any of it. Her only other pokemon, a squirtle she received as an eleventh birthday gift whom she'd named Jayden, had defended her and Summer fiercely. Then the thieves had given up, but to a point. Somehow they stole Summer's poke ball and broke it. Then they set fire to the barn and left. My mother scooped up her gloom, returned her squirtle, and tried to escape the burning building.

My mother was making good progress until she tripped on a fallen rafter and Summer slid from her grasp. "You have to follow me!" she shouted in a raspy voice.

"Gloo." Summer responded weakly. Taking that as a yes, my mother continued to run. She made it out of the building quickly, but her heart sunk when she noticed Summer had, in fact, not followed. She was about to go and look for her when the entire roof caved in on itself. My mother just sat in the soft. She was catatonic. The fire department came just as the first signs of morning started to show. They took her to a mental hospital. She stayed there for about a month when they released her. My mother wasn't crazy after that. She was just changed. She became terribly afraid of fire and the only pokemon she ever caught were water types. She finished the gym circuit, but didn't even attempt to face the Elite Four. She met a nice man and settled down. She was happy to say that man didn't have a fire type pokemon. That is how I knew it was selfish to want a fire type starter.

My father never had a traumatic experience like my mother's. He simply finished the gym circuit, faced the Elite Four, and lost to the second Elite Four member, Bertha.

A week before my tenth birthday, when I announced to my family that I wanted a fire starter, my mother nearly burst into tears. "Why don't we get you a water starter?" my father asked pleadingly, curling his arm around my mother.

"No," I refused, "If I want to be the best I want to start out with a fire type. A fast one also, I need strength to be the best."

"I'm sorry but-" My mother cut him off.

"No. Nolan, if he wants a fire starter he should have one. The best part of becoming a trainer is picking your starter yourself. I don't mind fire pokemon, just . . . fire." my mother said, hesitating on the last word.

"Are you sure?" my father asked, "I mean he'll live." he told her. He wasn't exactly helping my case.

"I am positive. I can't let the past effect the future. So, what kind of fire type did you want?" she asked, as kindly as the current situation would allow.

"I don't know yet. I know I want something fast, and I want something that can use more than fire type moves because if I go up against a water type or ground type I want her to be able to defend herself." I explained.

"_Her_?" my mother asked, questioning my gender specificity.

"Yeah," I said, "I . . . want a girl starter." I admitted a little embarrassed. This, also, was one of the many reasons I was picked on. All of the boys at school talked about how they were going to make a team of only male pokemon. They talked of never catching pokemon like buneary, cleffa, or swablu because those were "gay" pokemon, when in fact some very strong men trainers used pokemon of the "gay" variety. I didn't take any offense to it though. Hardly anyone within the nine year old to four your old population knew want the classification of "gay" actually meant. They just thought it was a hurtful way to say something was girly. I wanted a female starter because throughout the nine (almost ten) years I've spent on this planet I have learned that women have the capability to be much stronger than the male race. Woman wouldn't confront you head on like men would, no that would be too easy to counter, women would find the smartest and fastest way to bring their opponent down. This realization sparked the desire for an all-female team, or at the very least, a female starter.

"There's nothing wrong with that. My . . . starter had been female." my mother said with hesitation again, remembering her painful past.

"I know that. I picture female pokemon to be the stronger of the two sexes." I told my parents.

"That's exactly how you should picture them honey." my mother said with a smile, and she leaned into my father's embrace.

"So I'm not for sure, but if I can't think of anything surprise me. I'm sure you won't mess up." I said with a grin.

"Hopefully we won't. Now don't you think it's time that you went off to bed?" my father asked.

"Dad," I said, "Don't you think I'm a little too smart for a bedtime?" I questioned.

"Even geniuses have to sleep at some point. Now go." he said, ruffling my hair.

"Fine, but can Nyx sleep with me tonight?" I asked motioning to my mother's bibarel that had raised her head at the sound of her name.

"If she wants to." my father said.

"Great," I said getting up from the chair I had been sitting in, "Come on Nyx, let's go get ready for bed." I said as I ran up the stairs that led to my room. Nyx obediently followed. I quickly brushed my teeth, changed into a loose fitting t-shirt and flannel pants, and jumped into bed. I got under the blankets and patted the bed so Nyx would know it was okay to get up. She turned around once or twice and settled at the foot of the bed. I turned on my T.V. and flipped to the battle channel, turning down the volume so my parents wouldn't know.

"Ick." I whined in disgust. The current program was the mock battle show or legally known as "Celebrity Showdown." This show films celebrities having fake battles. Everyone says that they're real, but I know that they're rehearsed down to the last blink. A battle was just starting. The first competitor walked onto the field. It was Ke$ha. Though her voice was completely synthesized, most of her work was on my iPod. The second battler was none other than the Queen of Performance, Lady Gaga. She was wearing a dress completely mad of poke balls, her high heels were dark blue with a great ball on the toe of each, and she even had a master ball carefully fitted into a tiara she was wearing. I quickly turned off the T.V., not being able to withstand a single minute of that show, and closed my eyes.

Sleep came graciously quick and I was thrown into an abyss of darkness only to be sent into another day of unbearable waiting.


	2. Ending One Journey and Starting Another

The remainder of my last week as a nine year old in Jubilife City was agonizing. I couldn't come up with the slightest idea as of which fire pokemon I should use as my starter, my parents gave me these random quizzes, and if I got one question wrong then I'd have to wait another week before getting my Trainer's License, and I had to learn all of these survival tips. I had to learn how to stich `rips in clothing, I had to learn which plants were edible and which were poisonous, and I had to memorize a map of the Sinnoh region. Not fun. I packed, unpacked, and then repacked my backpack at least ten times. I never fell asleep until exhaustion wiped me out, and I slept until noon at least every day.

"You really need to get some more sunshine." my mother told me the day before my tenth birthday.

"I'll get plenty of sunshine on my journey," I said, "If I ever start it." I then mumbled.

"Hey, patience is an important tool when you're a trainer." My mother said pointing the fork she was washing at me.

"Do you think it will help me be the best?" I asked her curiously.

"Indeed I do." she replied placidly. So I was patient. I never asked when I'd get my present, or when I'd get my license. I thought about it, of course, but I didn't talk about it. That, unfortunately, made the last day much longer, but I got through it. On the day of my tenth birthday I woke up to the sound of "Happy Birthday" sung by my parents and the pokemon that regularly wore translators. When I opened my eyes I saw my mother, my father, and all of their pokemon which, alarmingly, could all fit in my room. I saw Jacob, My father's machamp, Sarah, his noctowl, clinton, his floatzel, Zoey, his glaceon, Spencer, his tangrowth, Treader, his magnezone, Jayden, my mother's blastoise, Nyx her bibarel, Lady, her vaporeon, Cole, her azumarill, Wilma, her octillery, and J.J. her pelipper.

"Hi." I said sleepily as I rubbed my eyes. They all laughed.

"Happy tenth birthday!" my mother exclaimed and hugged me. Then Nyx and Cole jumped on to my bed. Cole was holding a poke ball.

"Why is Cole holding his poke ball?" I asked confused.

"That isn't Cole's poke ball." My mother said with a tight smile.

"Then who's-" I knew the answer when my mother and father exchanged quick glances. "No way!" I yelled as I grabbed the poke ball out of Cole's hand. "Is this really my pokemon?" I asked quickly.

"It is," my father said, "Now open it up." I rolled the shiny poke ball in my hands and clicked the white button in the center of the device. It automatically opened, and in a flash of red let my first pokemon, mine and mine alone, appeared on the foot of my bed, in between Nyx and Cole.

"Vul!" cried the red fox that was stretching in front of me.

"A vulpix!" I cried, "You got me a vulpix!" I jumped up and hugged my parents. "Thank you guys! Mom, I know this was hard for you." I thanked her remembering her problems with fire and fire types.

"Oh, don't worry about me. This is your special day. We hope you enjoy her." my mother told me.

"Her?" I asked, "You got me a girl!" I yelled in delight.

"We hope we got you exactly what you wanted. She was the fastest female fire type we could find." my father explained.

"She must have been expensive." I told them in awe. I stuck my hand out in front of her face. She sniffed it, thought for a moment, then yelped happily,

"Pix!"

"Well," my mother began, "She wasn't the cheapest thing on the market, but it was worth it, and she already understands humans, and we got you some other things." She pulled out another present from behind her back.

"No way! Now I just need a translator, and I didn't ask for anything else." I told them confused.

"This present was sort of implied." my father said as he handed me the next present. I quickly tore away the paper wrapping and stared in happiness at the new present.

"A cell phone! Thank you!" I yelled in excitement. It was a simple blue flip phone with a camera, something every trainer should have.

"You're welcome, and we'll pay the bill. Don't worry about that." my mother explained.

"You don't have to do that. I'll be making money." I told them reminding them that for every battle I win I get half of the loser's money, and trust me I'll be winning a lot of battles.

"Well we want you to use all of your money on food and medicine." my mother explained.

"Oh thank you!" I said as I got up and hugged them both, "Now, when can I get my Trainer's License?" I asked rubbing my hands together.

"Now I suppose. You just have to change." my mother laughed.

"Okay! Get Out!" I said as I rushed my parents out the door. My vulpix watched as I shut the door and walked over to my closet. "What am I going to name you?" I asked.

"Vul." she whimpered as she turn around in a circle and curled up on the bed with her eyes locked on me

"Thanks for the opinion." I said as I opened my closet. November days in this part of Sinnoh were quite chilly so I chose a pair of jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt. I also put on my pair of basic black converse. I closed my closet and turned to my vulpix. "Can you follow me?" I asked opening the door. She nodded and jumped off of the bed standing beside my left foot. I walked down the steps and into the living room.

"Are you ready?" my mom asked picking up her purse.

"Yes." I said quickly and ran out the door. I jumped into the back seat and held the door open so my vulpix had time to jump in. She lied down on the seat farthest from me. I didn't think she liked me yet, she was just raised to be polite to humans. That was helpful, but I wanted an emotional connection with my partner, not a business one. Not wanting to linger on the subject, I just scratched her behind the ears and she purred softly. My dad got in on the passenger side.

"So," he asked, "What do you think you're going to name her?" he asked as he put on his seatbelt.

"I was thinking about an A name like Arialla, Ariel, or Aria. I don't know yet." I told him.

"Those are really cool names. She seems to like you." my dad noticed.

"She respects me. I don't know if she likes me yet. We met all of ten minutes ago." I said and look at her. She raised her head, looked at both of us, yawned, and laid back down. "See?" I asked him.

"Hey, it took Jacob a while to warm up to me to. Pretty soon you won't be able to get her to leave you alone." he told me. I doubted that, but I didn't bring up the subject again. I just sat there and stared at my currently nameless vulpix. Pretty soon we got to the office where I would receive my Trainer's License. We pulled in to the parking lot, and I picked up my vulpix. She was a little stiff, but I scratched behind her ears and she loosened up comfortably in my arms. _I've found her weak spot_, I thought.

When we walked into the building we were greeted by a plump women sitting on a stool behind a window flipping through a magazine. There were also many other trainers there. Some were there to get their first Trainer's License, and others were there to renew out of date ones. "How can I help you?" the woman asked as she flipped her magazine closed.

"We're here to apply for a Trainer's License." my mother said timidly.

"There is a fifteen minute waiting period." she said pointing to the row of chairs the others were seated at. I sat down in the seat closest to the door with my vulpix still in my lap while my parents signed our name on a piece of paper. I continued to scratch her ears until I picked what name she would have.

"I think I'll call you Aria," I told her, "Do you like that name?" she looked up at me nodded and laid back down. About ten minutes later a girl I knew from school walked in the door holding a beautiful skitty. I couldn't remember her name, but she sat down two seats away and set her skitty down. The skitty walked over to Aria and I and proceeded to sniff Aria. Aria just ignored her for a while, but soon I was even annoyed by it. Aria gave a little bit of a growl, but the skitty just looked up and continued its sniffing. Aria growled louder and swatted the cat on the nose. It cried and ran to the little girl.

"What did your pokemon do to my Sarah?" she asked loudly.

"Aria didn't do anything," I reassured her, possibly ruder than was needed, "It was your stupid skitty that bothered us."

"Whatever, Sarah doesn't bother anyone!" she yelled.

"You two keep it down. I can call the main office and file your little incident as a battle, and keep you two from getting your Trainer's License's for the next year." the plump lady behind the desk warned. The girl just turned away from me, pouting. I did the same.

"You've got to calm down." my mother told me patting my shoulder.

"Aria didn't do anything, it was her skitty." I whispered back.

"Oh, that's right you finally picked a name." she said.

"Yeah I like the name Aria." I told her.

"Kevin Banks." the lady from behind the desk called. We walked up to the door and she buzzed us in. We walked down a hallway to the second door on the left. A lady with orange hair welcomed us to sit down. We filled out a lot of paperwork. I process that probably took the better part of an hour. We walked to another room, I got my picture taken, and ten minutes later I had a laminated card with my face and all of my information on it and a PokeDex.

"Congratulations," my mother said, "You are now officially a trainer." She patted me on the back. We drove home and I was picking the best day for me to set out on my journey. I had no intention of leaving today because it was colder than usual. Saturday was supposed to be in the high sixties so I figured that would be the best time for my departure. Being a Thursday I didn't have to wait much longer. In fact the two days went by relatively quick. I didn't train Aria at all. I wanted to save it for the real journey. I fiddled with my PokeDex a lot. I learned really cool things. I learned what moves Aria knew, and what its average level was (which is ten). I decided the first pokemon I would catch would be a water pokemon, sort of as a peace offering to my mother.

On the day I was leaving it was both a happy and gloomy day. They were all happy to see me start my journey, but they were afraid something bad would happen to me. I assured them that I could handle myself, and that Aria could protect me just fine. My mother couldn't help but let just a few tears drop.

"I love you, and, please, be careful." my mother told me emphasizing on the word "please."

"Be safe, son." my father said trying to be strong, but I could see that his eyes were rimmed with red.

"I will, I promise. I love you guys." I told them, and I walked down the drive way that would begin my pokemon journey.


	3. What it Means to Travel

AN: I know I have punctuation errors a lot like putting periods in the wrong places, but please don't let it distract you from the story. I'll try harder on fixing it in the fourth chapter. I haven't fixed it in this chapter simply because I'd already written it when I realized this. The early release of this chapter is due to –Epic Fantasy- and Alphinia, my first 2 commenters.

During my first two weeks of being a trainer I learned three things. The first thing was that half of my favorite foods spoiled too fast for me to eat or save, good thing I liked rice. The second thing was that getting from place to place took a lot longer than I thought. Getting from Jubilife to route 203 took a whole day of traveling, and I was so tired after that I had to rest for two more days. The third thing was that Aria hated being in her poke ball. Maybe it was space issues or something, but whatever it was it made traveling during storms a pain. I could easily travel through the rain as long as it wasn't too horrible, but Aria could barely withstand a drizzle. She would growl and we would have to find somewhere to take refuge until the storm passed us. Aria would only go into her poke ball if there was no possible way to stay dry.

By the second week of traveling we were coming to the end of route 203. We hadn't met many trainers, but we fought every wild pokemon we saw, except the occasional abra that would just teleport away. By then my PokeDex said that Aria was around level thirteen. Aria could use the moves Ember, Tail Whip, Roar, and Quick Attack. She was a very good battler. She never ignored my orders, though sometimes she would alter them slightly to add more damage to the attack. But needless to say, I loved her. She was _my_ very own pokemon. Every day I saw her I loved her a little bit more, and that seemed to be the same effect on her also. The changes were subtle, but still noticeable to me. She started bringing me things I before I even asked for them, she would start cooking fires before I put all of the ingredients in the pot, little things like that.

I was focusing on which water pokemon I should catch, since I vowed that a water pokemon would be the first one that I catch. The pokemon in this area weren't very interesting. The PokeDex said that the only water pokemon anywhere near this area were psyduck. They weren't my favorite water pokemon. Golducks were pretty cool, but psyducks always got headaches and were kind of weak. The idea of catching a decent water pokemon soon was thrown out the window, but buying one might be more reasonable. After all, if I wanted to stand a chance against Roark and his rock type team I would need a type advantage. Aria was strong, but not strong enough to take out a whole rock type gym. I decided to keep traveling, and think about my water type problem on the way.

"Hello?" asked a voice that came from behind me.

"Yes?" I said as I turned around. The voice belonged to a boy that looked about my age. He had short red hair and freckles. He was basically wearing the same things as me, long sleeved shirt and jeans.

"Would you like to battle?" the boy asked, "Three on three?"

I was baffled. This boy, who has probably been training as long as me, already had at least three pokemon! I didn't want to look weak, which is probably why I gave the response I did, "Sure." Aria was strong, and the pokemon around this area were weaker than her. I figured the odds were in our favor.

"Alright," he said plucking a minimized poke ball from his belt, "Let's go."

He maximized the poke ball and popped it open. The red light dissipated to reveal a young looking starly. "Star!" it chirped happily.

"Julie was the first pokemon I caught. I found her back in Jubilife." he explained.

"Aria go." I told her. She stepped on to the makeshift battle field. "Use Roar." Aria let out a horrific roaring sound, and the opponents starly flew away behind the trainer in fear.

"Fine." he said returning his starly and releasing another pokemon. This pokemon was a shinx. "I caught Nick on the way here." he informed. I knew that shinx's couldn't use any offensive electric attacks before they evolved. _I could work with this, I_ thought.

"Aria, use Ember." I commanded placidly.

"Nick use Charge." he ordered. The shinx's body seemed to emanate static electricity. The fire hit him square in this face, but with not as much damage as I'd hope for.

"Aria, use Tail Whip then Quick Attack." I told her, making sure shinx's intimidate would be faulty even though it looked like Aria was unaffected. She extended her six tails to full length, turned around, then started waving them, and jumping from side to side. The shinx started barking laughs. In the middle of the pokemon's laughter Aria tackled it with blinding speed. It was totally caught off guard letting Aria land a direct hit that knocked it out.

"Nick!" the boy shouted, "That was great, return now." The shinx disappeared in a flash of red. "Go, Julie." he said releasing his bird back on to the field. "Use Wing Attack!" he shouted. The starly flew straight at Aria with its wings out stretched.

"Aria, dodge with Quick Attack." I said almost too calmly. Aria ran out of the way and tackled the bird with almost professional ease. "Now, use Ember." I commanded. The starly was bombarded with a flurry of fire, and It also fainted.

"Crap! Return!" the other trainer yelled angrily, "Go Amelia. She's my starter." He explained releasing his third pokemon and my eyes brightened at the sight of my last opponent.

"Tangela!" the grass pokemon screeched. What luck!

"Aria lets wrap this up. Use Ember." I said happily. Aria released a mouthful of fire and the tangela went down.

"Dang it!" he yelled returning his slightly singed pokemon.

"Hey you did pretty good. I've been training Aria for a while now. I was afraid that you'd get to my other pokemon though, they're weaker than Aria." I told him trying to improve my lie.

"Oh could I see them?" Crap. If he knew I only have one pokemon he could report me.

"Um . . . they're poisoned right now and about to faint. I've got to get them to the center in Oreburgh really quickly." I explained shakily. _Please buy it!_ I prayed.

"Oh I'm sorry. Well I guess that's okay." he then started to walk away.

"Hey!" I yelled.

"Yes?" he asked innocently.

"Nice try, you owe me half on your money." I told him, not buying into his act. His mask of innocence completely melted into an angry expression.

"Fine." he said giving me a handful of bills.

"Thank ya kindly." I responded smugly. He just huffed and walked away. "Aria! You were awesome! You are such a great battler! You singlehandedly beat a team of three! I knew you were good against the wild pokemon, but this was just awesome, you didn't take a bit of damage and now we have more money!" I picked her up and hugged her. On the first day we met she would have been really stiff, but now she kind of nuzzled my neck with the side of her head. We rejoiced over our win. Instead of moving on further we decided to make camp right there in the middle of the day. I walked around picking up fire wood and so did Aria. We set up a place to boil water and Aria lit up a fire. I filled the little pot with bottled water from my pack and sat waiting for the water to come to a boil.

"You know if we win like that every time we'll be beating the champion before you know it." I told Aria.

"Pix!" she barked joyfully. She sat down in my lap snuggling happily.

"You're really cool. I'm glad that you're my starter." I explained to her. She looked up at me with that seemed to say, _I'm glad that you're my trainer._ I hadn't realized it, but the water in the pot was bubbling violently. I scooted Aria off of my lap and poured about one and a half cups of rice into the pot. I pulled out a bag of basic pokemon food and poured it into Aria's bowl. She ate it happily as I waited for the rice to cook. When it was done I poured it into a bowl of my own and chowed down. I checked Aria with my PokeDex, and it said that she went up a level and learned the move Will-O-Wisp. It got dark soon so I cleaned everything up, and I got in my sleeping bag with Aria lying on top of my stomach. I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up to the sound of a chirping starly. Aria was running around kicking up dirt. "What are you doing?" I asked with a sleepy laugh.

"Vul!" she barked happily. She ran over to me and licked my face.

"Ha ha! Get off of me!" I laughed. She barked again and jumped off. We played for a little while, just having fun. Then I packed all of my stuff and we were on our way. Wild pokemon left us alone, and the few that did bother us were taken down in one hit. We saw three more trainers and smoked two of them. I wasn't even disappointed when I challenged a woman who looked about thirty and forfeited the match because she sent out an awfully large golem even though she warned me not to battle her. We almost doubled the money we had and Aria even went up another level. I was the happiest I've ever been. I couldn't understand why not everyone should be a trainer, well that's until I met my first trainer with a water type pokemon.


	4. The Reality of Training

I saw two trainers battling up the path a bit. I quickly concealed myself behind a nearby tree, not wanting to get mixed up into anything. One of the trainers, a teenaged boy, had a marill, and the other trainer, a younger girl, had a croagunk. It wasn't much of a battle. The marill went down after the croagunk hit it with a Faint Attack, not really fainted just too weak to stand. "Thanks for the battle," the teenager said through obviously clenched teeth, "You were really good. Here's your money." He handed the girl a couple of folded bills.

"You to," the girl said as she skipped into a cave. All of my happiness I had just moments before completely vanished only to be replaced with shock and fear as I saw what was happening to the water mouse pokemon after the girl was out of sight.

"You. Are. Worthless!" said as the trainer violently kicked the marill in between each word. He kicked extra hard on the last word so the pokemon was tossed a few feet forward. "You were taken out in two hits!" the trainer said kicking the marill again, "You didn't even get an attack in!" I couldn't help myself when he kicked it another time.

"Hey!" I yelled Aria following loyally behind me, "What are you doing to that pokemon?" I demanded.

"I'm training," he said annoyed, "Now get lost kid. Unless _you_ want to beat my useless marill."

"You were _kicking_ it. That's abuse!" I yelled, and Aria gave a low growl.

"I know that. The thing is mine so I'll do to it what I please, that's how training works kid. Now get lost, goddamn it!" he yelled violently pointing to the cave entrance.

"No! I won't just leave knowing you'll abuse that pokemon again!" I told him.

"What are you going to do?" he asked outstretching his arms. He looked like an older teenager, maybe seventeen, and he had long black hair, tan skin, and brown eyes. I looked down at Aria and said,

"Fight you."

"What?" he asked angrily.

"I want to battle you. One-on-one, if I win then you give the marill to me, and we go our separate ways, and I won't call the police," I explained to him.

"Fine I don't really care about the little shit anyway," he said pulling a poke ball from his belt and maximizing it.

"Aria, go," I told her. She stepped forward confidently. The teenager opened his poke ball, and he released the ghost pokemon duskull. _At least he doesn't have an advantage, _I thought, but soon threw that idea out the window. He was older, and looked stronger. I was probably going to lose this battle, but at least I'd lose for all of the right reasons.

"Skull . . ." the ghost sighed.

"Aria use Will-O-Wisp!" I yelled. Aria ran at the duskull. Just before Aria was in range, the pokemon seemed to disappear and it reappeared a few feet in front of where it was before. Amazingly, Aria seemed to be expecting that, and she turned and hit the ghost directly with the mysterious purple flames. The duskull was inflicted badly with burn.

"Damn! Are you useless to?" the trainer yelled. The pokemon gave the duskull version of shaking its head (which, apparently, meant moving its whole body from left to right). "Use Confuse Ray!" he yelled again.

"Dus . . ." the duskull groaned, and its red eye began to glow brightly.

"Aria, turn away quickly!" I shouted urgently. Aria growled and turned her back to the ghost. Things stayed that way for a while, and I knew this battle need to move on. "Aria turn straight around, but keep your eyes close, and use Ember in an arc. Aria preformed the task, but the duskull dodged the attack with ease. _How am I supposed to win a battle with my eyes closed?_ I questioned myself.

"Use Night Shade!" the evil trainer yelled. The duskull sent forth black energy that enveloped Aria.

"Aria use Ember!" I yelled. Aria attacked with a mouthful of fire, breaking free of the duskull's attack. The duskull was hit with the fire, and Aria took advantage of his moment of weakness and ran forward with another Ember. Between the Ember's and the damage from the burn, the duskull was pretty weak.

"Night Shade again!" the teenager barked.

"Duskull!" the pokemon yelled, showing its first essence of emotion. He attacked with the black energy again. Aria tried to dodge, but was somehow to slow. She broke free multiple times, and looked about to faint until things changed for the better. Aria swiftly dodged the next Night Shade with Quick attack, and that window of oppritunity was just enough to shift the odds of the outcome of this battle in my favor.

"Ember!" I shouted. Aria ran in close and hit the duskull with a mouthful of fire. It fluttered in the air a bit then Aria attacked with Ember again. The pokemon was obviously not unconscious, just a little frazzled, but that didn't mean anything to the teenager.

"Damn it! Why is that every pokemon I catch a damn weakling!" the trainer yelled returning the fainted ghost pokemon in disgust. I hurried over to the marill and picked it up in my arms. The evil trainer looked at me. "Do you think I was really going to let you just take that thing?" he asked pointing to the pokemon in my arms. "I made the mistake of having confidence in my pokemon, but still I won't let you have it. I'm going to take it, and I'm going to _kill_ it," he said pulling out another poke ball. He was about to click it open, but Aria ran at him. She jumped on him and bit him hard on the arm, the poke ball flying from his grasp. His arm started dripping blood when he produced a knife from one of his pockets and prepared to stab Aria. Right before he swung down, the knife flew out of his hand by an Ice Beam that came from none other than the marill I was holding in my arms.

He stared at the marill with both surprise and disgust. That moment of pause gave Aria just enough time to sink her teeth into the trainer's shoulder. He shouted in pain, and pushed Aria hard off of him. She hit the ground with a yelp. I picked up a rock at my feet and threw it as hard as I could. It hit him in the stomach, and he exhaled harshly. Aria ran over to me, seemingly unharmed, and we ran. We ran like the scared little children that we were. I turned around once only to see the evil trainer following us with a frightening houndoom at his side. We ran as fast as we could through the Oreburgh Gate, avoiding questioning looks and shouts from pokemon and trainers alike. When we reached Oreburgh City we kept running until we found the police station. I stared at Officer Jenny with terrified eyes. "He'll be here soon! Please, help!" I yelled.

"Who? Who will be here soon?" she asked with immediate concern.

"This teenager, he was bea-" I turned around mid-sentence when the door opened.

"Who are you?" Officer Jenny demanded.

"I'm a trainer," the evil teenager said with his houndoom still out, "My name is Eli Johnson, and he stole my marill." When he pointed at me I stifled a gasp.

"No I didn't! He was beating it, and I saved her. He said if he lost the battle than he would give it to me and I wouldn't tell the authorities. Of course I was planning to do it as soon as I got here," I said throwing daggers at Eli (if that was even his real name).

"You little bastard!" he yelled, his houndoom growling.

"Sir, return your pokemon and put your hands behind your back," Officer Jenny said calmly, pulling out her gun and pointing it at him.

"Okay, Okay," he said putting up his hands in surrender, "I'm going to reach into my pocket and pull out a poke ball." he said slowly putting his hand to his pocket. He pulled out a poke ball and returned his houndoom.

"Good, now put your hands behind your back," she said lowering her gun ever so slightly. He reached behind his back, and it looked like he gripped something. He rose his hand up quickly and in it was the knife he tried to use on Aria. He tried to charge, but he didn't get very far before there was a loud bang. My eyes snapped shut, and I heard something clatter to the floor and a scream. By then I was curled up on the floor, the marill still in my arms and Aria by my knee. I dared to take one look and saw Eli holding his hand and the knife on the floor. Eli's hand had a bloody hole through it. I gasped and turned away. I kept my eyes closed through some yelling and threatening from Eli and Officer Jenny. I only opened them when Officer Jenny patted my shoulder and said, "He's gone." I looked up at her, trying my hardest not to spill tears.

"What happens now?" I asked shakily rearranging my arms so I held the marill more protectively.

"Well do you think you could come in the back with me and tell me the whole story?" she asked in a motherly way. I shakily nodded my head and got to my feet. Making sure Aria was right beside me I followed Officer Jenny into a room in the back. It wasn't one of those FBI interrogation rooms like you see on T.V. it was just a blandly colored office that had one chair behind a desk and two in front of it. "You can sit down if you'd like," she said motioning to the chairs.

"Thank you," I told her motioning for Aria to get up on my lap beside the marill.

"Now, do you think you could tell me exactly what happened between you and . . . Mr. Johnson?" she said pausing to figure out the right words to describe the monster. I nodded and told her everything. I started with telling her about me seeing his actions toward his pokemon, and I ended the story relaying the event that just recently occurred. Officer Jenny wrote several things down on a note pad, but for the most part of my story she just stared with eyes filled with concern. "Are you sure that is exactly what happened between you and Mr. Johnson?" she asked. To be honest I was a little angry. I had no reason to lie, but I just thought of it as a technicality.

"Yes, I am sure. So, what happens to the marill?" I asked urgently.

"Well we are going to ask it," she said pulling out a collar looking thing from a drawer in her desk.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"This is a pokemon translator," she explained, "It deciphers a pokemon's speech into that of a human. They are sold at most PokeMarts for very high prices. We are going to put it on the marill and ask it if the events you just described are true, and what she wants to be done about her ownership." Officer Jenny reached over the table, and I reluctantly handed her the marill. She carefully tightened the collar so it would fit securely and clicked a button. Nothing happened. It was total silence. "Do you understand human speech?" Officer Jenny asked.

_"Yes,"_ said the marill in a pleasant girlish voice, and not the monotone robotic voice I was expecting. I gasped at the sound of her voice. I looked at Aria in a way that said, _We're getting you one of those._

"Are the events that Mr. um, what did you say that your name was again?" she asked looking at me.

"I didn't. It's Kevin, Kevin Banks," I told her.

"Yes, Are the events that Mr. Banks described true?" she asked looking at the pokemon.

_"Y-yes. Eli beat us. He did it to everyone if they lost. I was the last pokemon he's caught. I was the only girl. He didn't usually catch girls. He thought they were weak," _the marill replied shakily, my fist clenching at Eli's philosophy.

"Do you have a name?" Officer Jenny asked writing more things down on her notepad.

_"N-no. He never named us until we had proven ourselves. The duskull he used to battle with hadn't had a name either. The duskull hadn't even lost yet, he's just . . . so impatient," _she explained.

"Very well," Officer Jenny said closing her notepad. "Well Mr. Johnson's pokemon will obviously be confiscated, he will be sent to prison for five years for abuse to not one, but maybe even six pokemon, his Trainer's License will be revoked, and any application for a new one will be declined. But the matter at hand right now is you," Officer Jenny said pointing at the marill sitting on the table.

_"M-me?" _the marill questioned nervously.

"Yes, you. What would you like to do? Would you like to be released into the wild, put into a pokemon adoption agency, or, perhaps, have Mr. Banks here be your trainer?" Officer Jenny asked motioning towards me.

_"I would like to go with Kevin. He protected me and so did his vulpix. That's what I really want,"_ the marill explained beginning a sentence for the first time without a stutter.

"That is perfectly okay. I just have to get your poke ball, release you, and have Kevin recapture you. Does that sound good?" Officer Jenny asked getting up from her desk.

_"It sounds perfect."_ The marill said with a smile. Officer Jenny left the room and closed the door quietly behind her. We sat in silence for a minute or two, but then the marill spoke up, _"Thank you." _ Those to words meant more than any monologue I could have thought of sitting in that room.

"You're welcome," I responded scratching her head. Officer Jenny came back into the room holding two poke balls.

"Alright, is everyone ready to do this?" she asked cheerfully. We all nodded her heads, and she maximized one of the poke balls. "I'm going to have to return you for a moment so I can properly release you. Is that alright?" she questioned the marill

_"Yes," _said the pokemon. Officer Jenny returned the marill in a flash of red light, she held down the center button of the closed poke ball, and the marill reappeared in a flash of dark blue light.

"There you go, you are now officially a wild pokemon," she said and handed me the other poke ball, "You can capture her now." I maximized the poke ball and tossed it at the marill. It hit her in the stomach and she disappeared within the device. The center button was glowing red. It didn't even wiggle once before the button turned white again, signaling that the marill had been successfully caught. I quickly let her out, and she giggled in amusement. She apparently laughed to hard and gripped her sides in pain. "That's the other thing, you must take that marill to the Pokemon Center immediately,"

"Of course," I told her quickly.

"And we're going to need the translator back, sorry. It belongs to the city," Officer Jenny explained apologetically.

"That's okay," I told her as I slipped the collar off of the marill's neck. I handed it to her, assured her that my first stop was the Pokemon Center, and was on my way. We got to the Pokemon Center and the marill was healed quickly. I checked her, and the PokeDex said that she was level fourteen just like Aria. I was trying to think of just the right name for her. I wanted something modern, nothing to Middle-Earthy like Aria's name. Then as we were all sitting in the Pokemon Center's lobby it hit me. It was like I ran into a brick wall. "I think I'll call you Piper," I said looking down at my new water mouse pokemon. It seemed as though Piper had forgotten all of the bad things she went through with her old trainer, and I was glad about that. We slowly walked to the Oreburgh City gym, enjoy the sun as it bathed our faces.


	5. Losing Is Part of the Description

We, Aria, Piper, and I, slowly walked to the Oreburgh City Gym. We walked in front of the door, I gripped the door handle, exhaled sadly, and started walking back to the Pokemon Center. After everything that happened today I just wasn't in the battling mood. I just couldn't get excited after realizing that there are people in the world that beat their pokemon, I just couldn't face a pokemon battle at the moment. I decided to just go back to the center and watch the big T.V. in the lobby. There weren't that many people in the lobby, so I was pretty sure that no one would mind me flipping on the battle channel. I still wouldn't mind to _watch_ a battle. I turned it on to the right channel and was amazed at the site I saw.

"Are you ready Flint?" asked my mother as she faced Flint the Elite Fourist. _My_ mother was challenging the Elite Four, and she was already facing Flint! I was baffled and amazed. My mother had never made any notion that she was ever going to face the Elite Four, and even now, when she is fighting a fire type specializer, she didn't seem to have any worries or fears.

"You better believe it," Flint said maximizing a poke ball.

"Let's go," my mother said clicking open her own poke ball. The flash of red light revealed Jayden, her blastoise.

"A water type, how original," Flint said sending out his rapidash. "Use Sunny Day," Flint commanded, and the rapidash started glowing brightly, and the stadium seemed to brighten severely.

"Rain Dance!" my mother yelled almost immediately after. Jayden started glowing brightly to then a harsh rain began in the middle of the stadium. "Hydro Pump!" she commanded. Jayden fired a cannon of water at the fire horse and it fainted in just one hit.

"Haha, this is going to be fun!" Flint yelled returning his rapidash and sending out his infernape. "Mach Punch!" Flint yelled.

"Protect!" my mother shouted before the infernape even had time to move. The ape flew at Jayden with blinding speed, but by the time the Mach Punch made contact, Jayden already had a glowing green shield around him. "Hydro Pump!" my mother ordered again. Jayden's shield disappeared, and he fired another Hydro Pump, but this time at close range. The infernape flew back and fainted.

"Gosh," Flint said, "How long have you been training that thing?"

"A while now," my mother said with a smile. Flint released his third pokemon, a houndoom. I flinched at the site of the black dog because of my past experiences with them, but the site of it was soon gone after my Jayden, once again, fainted it with one Hydro Pump. Flint released his fourth pokemon, a flareon, without a single word. This time my mother wanted to play games with Flint. "Use Bubble, Jayden." My mother said with a wide grin. Jayden fired a stream of bubbles quickly at the flareon. Each and every bubble made contact with the flareon, and it fainted at the hand of one of the weakest water type attacks in existence.

"W-what?" Flint questioned dumbfounded.

"That just shows how strong my water pokemon are Flint. Now, hurry up and sent out your last pokemon, I want to get to Lucian today," my mother said with a wave of her hand. Flint regretfully released his final pokemon, a magmortar. "Time for the big finish," my mother said gleefully.

"Magmortar, use Fire Blast!" Flint yelled desperately.

"Hydro Cannon, Jayden!" my mother yelled back. Jayden fired an enormous cannon of water, much larger than his Hydro Pump, and it met the Fire Blast headfirst quickly extinguishing it. The water kept flowing and almost completely submerged magmortar, and it didn't get back up. Flint returned the heavy breathing magmortar.

"You can move on now, I guess," said Flint a bit glumly, and that's when I turned the T.V. off. I didn't want to find out if my mother will become champion or not. I just wanted to battle. Seeing my mother face her fears and battle the fire Elite Fourist gave me the drive to get over today's bad experiences and battle the rock type gym leader. I ran with Piper and Aria behind me to the Oreburgh Gym. I swung the doors open and ran up steps and across bridges. I stepped onto my side of the arena only to see Roark training with his geodude.

"Hi Roark," I said, "Are you up for a battle?" Roark laughed happily and directed his geodude onto the arena.

"Well, you just don't want to waste any time do you?" he asked smiling.

"Let's go," I told him.

"Do you know the rules and regulations?" he asked.

"Who doesn't?" I responded sarcastically.

"Then fine," he said, "You can have the first move." I motioned for Piper to take her place on the field.

"Water Gun!" I yelled. The attack landed a direct hit and the geodude went down. "Yes!" I shouted loudly.

"That's a strong marill," Roark commented. He returned his geodude and released his second pokemon. The sound of my dropping jaw was almost audible.

"Onix!" the behemoth rock snake shouted. I had heard of onix's, but I had never seen one in real life, or had known that Roark uses one. The only thing that I knew about Roark was that his dad was also a gym leader and that he used rock type pokemon. I had no possible idea how Piper, the petite water mouse pokemon, could defeat this colossus of rock type pokemon.

"Um . . . use Water Gun . . . ?" The command came out as more of a question. Piper shot water at the rock pokemon.

"Use Rock Throw!" Roark commanded. The rock snake pokemon dug up a huge mass of rock from the arena, and it easily defended the pokemon from Pipers minute water attack. "Now, use Wrap!" Roark ordered. The onix quickly entangled its long, snakelike body around my water mouse pokemon.

"Rill!" Piper screamed in shock more than pain. I knew that gym pokemon like onix are trained to go easy on smaller pokemon, nevertheless, I returned Piper quickly and, somewhat reluctantly, sent out Aria. I'd rather send out my disadvantaged fire pokemon than forfeit. The best _do not_ forfeit.

"Aria, Will-O-Wisp!" I commanded loudly. Aria ran up to the rock pokemon and Aria sputtered out the small, yet almost magical, flames at the onix without showing an ounce of fear. The attack was a direct hit, and the pokemon had a bad case of burn. Now it was only a matter of time. As long as we dodged all of its attacks it eventually would faint from the burn or even maybe exhaustion. "Aria, stay on the evasive!" I yelled. There was nothing else I could do. During the first few days of our travels as pokemon and trainer, I taught Aria simple battle commands. I figured it would give us an edge in battles. "Stay on the evasive" meant to dodge every attack with her own Quick Attacks. "Stay on the offensive" meant to attack at every possible opening without worrying about defense. "Stay on the defensive" was essentially the same as the evasive maneuver, but she would counter attack at the safest possible openings.

"Wrap," Roark said calmly. Aria, following commands to a tee, used Quick Attack to easily dodge the enormous pokemon. The chink in onix's armor is that its gigantic stature makes dodging easy, almost laughably so. That's how things went on for a while. Aria would dodge and the burn continued to take effect until the onix got in one lucky shot. The onix went in for a Wrap, but when Aria dodged it tossed a Rock Throw that ended up as a direct hit. She went down with an unconscious thump. I quickly returned her and sent out Piper again. She had calmed down a bit and was ready for battle.

"Ice Beam!" I yelled without skipping a beat. Piper released what looking like blue lightening from her mouth. It landed a direct hit and the onix went down. The next pokemon was even more difficult.

"Cran!" the bull type pokemon thing screeched.

"Headbutt!" Roark yelled. I regret to say that after that direct, full force attack, Piper was knocked out cold. I returned her and buried my face in my hands. The next thing I knew, Roark was patting my shoulder with a strong but gentle hand.

"Don't be that way," he told me, "the first loss is always the hardest."

"But I tried _so_ hard!" I told him feeling my eyes water.

"How long have you been in Oreburgh?" he asked quizzically.

"About a day," I told him.

"Then you haven't tried that hard!" he guffawed. I just rubbed my eyes with my hands and let them fall to my sides. "I'm sorry that was mean," he told me, "but you have to understand that you just can't jump out of bed and beat everyone without training any. My advice is: go out and train like heck, come back when you feel ready, and win."

"Thank you," I mumbled and left for the Pokemon Center. I handed the pink haired woman my pokemon and sat down on the couch. I heard the gentle chimes of the healing machine and almost didn't want to get back up, but I knew that I had to stay strong. I got up, picked up my pokemon, and left for my room. I released my pokemon, and they each had conflicting emotions.

"Rill!" I was bombarded by Piper's shrill cries as she attached herself to my leg. I picked her up and sat down with her on the bed.

"Calm down!" I pleaded. "It wasn't your fault I lost. I'm the trainer so it was my fault," I explained to her. That seemed to calm her down a little bit, but when I saw Aria's face my heart broke. The look was that of complete sadness. She looked dreadfully crestfallen. I knew that it wasn't just about the battle. It always used to be about Aria, but now it was all about Aria _and_ Piper. I almost didn't feel sorry for her, but she was my very first pokemon. I couldn't help myself. "Piper, would you mind going in your ball for a bit?" I asked politely. She just nodded her head and disappeared into her poke ball. I turned to Aria.

"Look I know that this isn't just about the gym battle. I know you don't like me paying attention to Piper. I know that you crave my attention so much you'll give your teammate the cold shoulder. I love you. But I love Piper also. You are both my pokemon. You will never be the first in my heart, but you will always be my first pokemon, and that is something Piper will never be. We have a bond that goes much deeper than mine and Piper's trust me." My monologue was rewarded with a log stare, a deep sigh, and my very first pokemon climbing into my lap. I exhaled deeply and squished her to my chest.

I then let Piper out, and Aria gave Piper a quick sniff as a peace offering. I went into the adjoining bathroom for a hot shower and left my pokemon to their own wellbeing. The shower felt amazing after a long day of hard ships. I stepped out, dried off, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and plopped down into the bed. Aria rested on my right side, and Piper laid down on my right. Sleep soon came as a peace offering to this enormous day.

~oOo~

The next morning was very slow. I got out of bed because Piper hit me in the face with a Water Gun. I looked out the window and saw that the sun wasn't showing its face yet. I went down stairs to get some breakfast not even bothering to change out of my sweat pants and t-shirt. My trip was useless because breakfast wasn't served until eight thirty and Piper chose to wake me up at six. I yawned loudly to change into clothes. I put on my jeans and long sleeved t-shirt. I decided I might want to wash my other pair so I walked downstairs to the washing and drying machines with a fistful of quarters. I really didn't know how to wash clothes, but thankfully what mom packed for me was relatively simple.

I just dropped in the capsule thing that mom found at some store and click the cold water button. Then I waited in one of the chairs. I flipped open my phone and remembered I only had two numbers saved in it. My parents. I couldn't believe that I had no other trainer friends. I made a quick mental note to get some new friends. Soon the machine dinged and I moved my clothes into the dryer. I figured this would take a little bit longer so I went over to the couch and turned on the television. I was met with an interesting commercial. The announcer was explaining about a tournament in Eterna city. It was a double battle tournament that took place in a month. You have to have at least two badges and at least three pokemon to enter, and you had to enter by phone at least five days in advance. I had to enter.

Four weeks! I screamed in my head. I had a little over four weeks to get two badges and catch another pokemon. I didn't think it could happen, but then I remembered that the best always had to deal with time limits. I told convinced myself that I could do this. I had to figure out which kind of pokemon should be my next. I could get a grass type and finish the main type cycle. I could get a bird now instead of later. I already knew what my team would consist of. I would have a grass, water, fire, electric, flying, and some random type. My flying type would be something that could fly me around, but I still didn't know which I would get next. I would just have to think about it after I get my first badge. The dryer dinged so I took out my clothes folded them and put them in my bag.

I had killed about an hour so I still had time to wait. I flipped through all of the channels and was disappointed that nothing came on at seven in the morning on a Tuesday. I eventually gave into boredom and turned to Celebrity Showdown on the battle channel. This time it was Madonna battling Justin Bieber. I liked Madonna and didn't _hate_ Bieber so I figured watching this wouldn't kill me. Madonna pulled out a regular poke ball, but Bieber pulled out a great ball so I thought he might have actually caught this pokemon. Madonna released an altaria, and Bieber released a gengar. A gengar wasn't really Biebers's thing. He usually was more about looks and what the girls like. This made the idea of this being his real pokemon more feasible. The battle began in Bieber's favor.

"Use Destiny Bond, Rhiannon!" he called. The gengar floated with great speed toward the bird. He tackled it and grabbed it in some kind of hug. The gengar glowed then the altaria glowed. The bird appeared to be unscathed, but I knew the effects of Destiny Bond. Now Bieber could lose from direct damage without the altaria fainting. He was smart.

"DragonBreath," she called when the gengar was still relatively close. Blue flames escaped the altaria's mouth and met the gengar with a direct attack. The ghost stumbled back slightly, but appeared to be relatively undamaged. "Toxic!" she yelled quickly. The altaria spat up some kind of purple sludge that almost hit the ghost pokemon, but it just jumped lithely out of the way. I got really bored and turned it off. I forgot how much I disliked that show.

"Blah," I scoffed ad fell down on the couch. Piper and Aria jumped on me annoyingly.

"Rill!"

"Pix!" Sometime after their fun, Nurse Joy handed me a paper plate stacked high with pancakes drenched in syrup. I ate them greedily and shared some with my pokemon. They enjoyed the rich taste and I didn't even need to cut into our supply of pokemon food. Soon after we ate the pacncakes, I grabbed my bag checked out with Nurse Joy and left. There was a route just north of Oreburgh so we ran there and started training. The pokemon were really weak in that area so it took us about an hour or so to get them both up a level. Piper was no level sixteen and Aria was level fifteen. I didn't like the gap, but I figured Piper would need it for the battle, and Aria could make it up at the grass gym in Eterna.

"Here to try again?" Roark asked as I entered his gym for the second time.

"You bet," I said with a smile. I motioned for Piper to take her place on the field and returned Aria. Roark maximized a poke ball.

"Let's go," he said as he released his geodude once again.

"Piper Ice Beam," I said. The geodude went down in one move once more.

"She hasn't gotten any weaker I see," Roark said returning his geodude and maximized another poke ball.

"Only stronger," I told him. He released his onix, and I nor Piper were at all surprised. We've seen it all before. "Ice Beam!" I yelled.

"Rock Throw!" Roark responded, but Piper was too fast. The blue lightening hit the onix before it even had time to dig up a rock. I regret to say that it didn't go down, but it defiantly looked hurt.

"Water Gun!" I commanded before the onix even had time to compose itself. The water made a direct hit spanning up and down the rock snake. This time the giant pokemon fell to the ground so hard the entire gym shuddered. Roark returned his onix and maximized his third poke ball. This time, I shuddered. I returned Piper and sent out Aria.

"Are you sure that's the best of ideas?" Roark asked quizzically.

"Positive," I told him reassuringly.

"Whatever," he shrugged as he released his final pokemon.

"Dos!" the pokemon screeched as it prepared for battle. I leaned in close to Aria so Roark couldn't hear our quick exchange.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do. Your main objective is to get in a bad burn." I whispered. She nodded knowledgably and took on a battle stance. "You can have the first attack," I told Roark.

"Okay," he said cheerfully. "Use Headbutt!" The pokemon scraped at the ground with its feet and charged Aria. She sidestepped quickly and released a Will-O-Wisp. I made good contact with the pokemon, but I wanted to see how far she could take this. She dodged another Headbutt and fired another Will-O-Wisp. This made the burn very severe.

"Substitution!" I called and returned Aria. I released Piper and she looked content. "Try to aim away from the burn," I told her. I didn't know if it was possible, but I didn't want to nullify the effects of the burn with water type attacks. "Use Water Gun!," I told her. She obeyed ad made a good clean hit away from the burn.

"Headbutt, let's go!" Roark called. The pokemon charged at Piper as an idea popped into my head.

"Ice Beam on its feet!" I yelled. She happily released and Ice Beam the frozed the pokemon's feet solid. It crashed to the ground with an angry thud. "Close range Water Gun," I told her. She joyfully bounced to her opponent and fired a Water Gun right to its face. It fainted and I won. I ran over to her and swung her in the air. "We did it! We did it!" I cheered. Roark giggled as he returned his pokemon.

"Good job, kid," he congratulated. "Here's your badge, TM, and winning money. Welcome to the gym circuit."

I fitted my badge neatly into my trainer case and stuffed the money into my pocket. I knew it was probably unorthodox, but I jumped up and gave Roark a huge hug. Surprisingly he picked me up and hugged me tight. Though he was a man I only met yesterday, gym leaders were adults that you could trust. He was probably used to noobs getting caught up in the moment. "Get out of here and finish your journey. I expect to see you as champion," he told me. I thanked him again and left the gym. I didn't bother with the center and just headed straight for Jubilife. After all I had to get one more pokemon and badge in three weeks. Well, I thought, I'm passed half way there.


	6. The Trials of Assembling Half a Team

\ Three weeks and two days. It had taken me and my two pokemon three weeks and two days to get to Eterna city. I was so proud of myself. It had taken me two weeks to get from Jubilife to Oreburgh. Oreburgh to Eterna is almost twice the distance. We had practically run the whole way. We got up before sun up and stopped well after sun down. When I plopped onto the couch in the Eterna Pokemon Center, I couldn't help but let a sigh of relief escape me. When I relayed the last three weeks and two days of my journey to Nurse Joy, she threw an epic fit. She demanded I go to my room and sleep. I didn't object, mostly because I was too tired. My eyelids were drooping when she was fussing over the signs and dangers of exhaustion. She took my pokemon to heal them as they were worn out also. I don't know exactly how long I slept, but it was at least a day. I woke up on a soft bed.

I sat up and saw Aria's and Piper's balls on a dresser. I let Aria out first because she hated her ball. She didn't complain about it in Oreburgh, but then again Aria didn't seem like much of a vocal complainer. "Pix," she barked annoyingly.

"I know," I told her as I released Piper. She squeaked and hugged my leg with her stubby arms. "Alright guys we have some work to do. We have to get another teammate and beat the next gym in less than a week. Do you think we can do it?" The barked and squeaked the assurance and I pulled out my hoodie. I also pulled out a granola bar to eat. I was starving. Nurse Joy was fussing again as I left the center, but I assured her I would be back tonight. I didn't want to deal with time limited traveling for a while now. I finished my granola bar and indulged myself to another one with no hesitation. I happily walked to route 211. There were a lot of wild pokemon there so I figured it would be a good place to start looking for a new teammate.

I had no idea what type of pokemon I wanted. I decided that, whatever I got, I would train it, but before I did anything I made a daring move. I called the number that was on the television commercial for the double battle tournament. It was some kind of automated recording. I told them my name, that I had two badges (lie), two pokemon (lie), and how old I was (happy that I didn't have to lie about that). I remembered from the commercial that the tournament would be held in this huge outside arena that Eterna very rarely used. I would need to be there at eight o' clock to receive the rules. It would be open to the public, and then I learned something I didn't understand from the commercial. It was a double battle tournament, but you wouldn't be using two pokemon. You would be using one with a partner.

I was biting my nails frantically. I had no idea it would be a partnered double battle. I didn't know if I could coordinate with a partner. I knew I might have to be partnered up in _something_ during my training career, but I was just clinging to the thought that I would get the "sit down and shut up" type of partner. My main concern was that I would get some kind of weakling. Technically I wasn't an elite trainer, but I was no weakling either. I would soon have two badges and half a team. I still had to catch a pokemon and get a badge in less than a week, though. I started walking around aimlessly with my whole team out.

Piper and Aria sort of made a game out of beating most of the wild pokemon. I really couldn't tell who was winning. Aria might have been in the lead barely, but if she was than Piper was only on e or two wins behind. Piper loved using her Ice Beam. It was her most effective move in her arsenal of attacks. Her previous trainer must have taught it to her, but I had no desire to think about him right now. Piper seemed to forget about him, and I wanted to shove out of my mind as soon as possible. I had to think about the objective at hand.

I mostly ran into bidoof and meditite. I didn't want either. I thought a chingling or hoothoot would be good. I could get a machop to make my dad happy, but I didn't really have an overwhelming desire for any of them. I just kept wandering around hoping some magical perfect pokemon would come, riding on the back of a raikou. Unfortunately, no such luck. I started distracting myself from the fact all the pokemon in this area sucked. I counted the five poke balls in my bag at least five times. I tied my shoes three or four times. I tied long pieces of grass into knots. I raced with Aria and Piper. I beat Piper, but horribly lost to Aria. She was fast, just like I wanted. I checked Piper and Aria's level again. After two weeks of power training and almost a full day of competitive training, Aria was level nineteen and Piper was level seventeen.

I did a double take at Piper's level. Then I checked the evolutionary process of a marill. Marill were supposed to evolve into an azumarill at around level eighteen, so sooner or later Piper would be evolving. I didn't know how well that would sit with Aria. If she was jealous of having a new teammate then she might be angry if her teammate evolved before her. I'll probably have to explain to Aria that she can't evolve without a fire stone. I wanted her to learn all the moves she could before her genetic code is altered and she can't naturally learn any new moves. I especially wanted her to learn Fire Blast. I looked it up and that was around level forty seven, so it would be awhile. I think that Aria has gotten kind of attached to Piper. She treated her kind of like a little sister, and Piper loved that.

I guess it was the fact that she had been void of real pokemon companionship since she was caught. Either way, Piper greeted it with open arms. I was glad that they were getting along. It took me awhile for Aria to get attached to me, so I guess that was the effect anyone had on her. I realized that I had a purpose for walking around outside long after the sun had started to set. I reluctantly trudged off to the Pokemon Center hoping that tomorrow would bare better fruits. I fell asleep hugging Aria on one side, like a squishy heating pad, and hugged piper on the other, like a cool pillow. The combination of warm and cool gave me a good night's sleep.

~oOo~

I woke up well rested and decided it would be a good time to take a shower. I was glad to have a few peaceful moments when I didn't have to worry about time limits, badges, or new pokemon. I reluctantly got out and got dressed. I decided to be a procrastinator and give Piper and Aria a bath. Piper loved it. She squeaked gleefully and splashed around the falling water. Now Aria on the other hand wasn't as enthusiastic. I turned the water up as hot as it could go, and that helped a little. It didn't really hurt Aria, but she was immensely irritating to her. Her favorite part was probably getting toweled off and sulking over to a corner to scowl. Piper squeaked and squeaked. I assumed that meant she wanted another bath. I told her we would tomorrow if she was good.

I decided now would be a good time to actually attempt to catch a third pokemon. After all, I only had five days left. I stomped out into the wild once again. It was so irritating. I had no success yet again. I was near tears when a little girl interrupted me with a little cough. I turned around to find a girl shorter than me with a big blue Eskimo type hat pulled down over her ears. "Can I help you?" I asked with false politeness. She didn't seem to notice.

"Can you help me with something?" she asked.

"With what?" I replied rudely. Once again she didn't seem to notice my hints for her to go away.

"Will you catch me a bidoof? I don't any poke ball or money," she asked embarrassed. Just after she said that a bidoof just happened to lumber passed. I decided to be the cool person. I pulled out a poke ball from my bag and tossed it at the wild pokemon, not even bothering to weaken. I couldn't help but hold my breath as the poke ball wiggled lightly. Apparently sheer surprise is enough to catch such a simple pokemon. I picked up the now occupied poke ball and handed it to the little girl.

"I have no idea why you would want a bidoof. They are really weak pokemon." I told her.

"Well my little sister will be starting her journey soon, and bidoof are her absolute favorite pokemon. It would have been cheaper to just catch one than buy it from a breeder. I don't even think breeders breed bidoof. They are awfully common so maybe not. Oh gosh! I'm so sorry I'm rambling aren't I?" Apparently she picked up on my eye roll in the middle of her ramble. I was glad she could pick up on at least one hint.

"Just a little bit," I told her as I started to walk away.

"Would you like to battle?" she asked in her small voice.

"Not really, no," I said and started to walk away again. I rudely ignored he protest and eventually she gave up. I didn't really need any extra money, and I didn't want to tire out either of my pokemon. I resumed my hopeless search and random training. When a stray chingling made the bad choice of crossing our paths the best thing so far on my journey happened. Piper easily took it out with one Ice Beam, but then appeared to be a little uncomfortable. She shifted from side to side with her muscles tight. When she let her muscles relax it happened. Piper began to glow a silvery glow. Her body shape seemed to grow about a foot and the glow started to fade.

I was now looking into the face of a newly evolved azumarill. "Azu!" she squeaked. Her voice didn't change all that much. It seemed to be a little lower, but otherwise was insignificant. I gleefully snatched her up and held her tight.

"You evolved! I'm so happy!" I cheered I delight. She squeaked at me happily. When I set her down she reached my knees if her ears weren't drooping. That's when I remembered Aria. I turned to her nervously awaiting the eventual silent treatment. When I looked at Aria she looked far from jealous or angry. She actually looked happy. She even went over to Piper and licked her newly evolved forehead. Piper giggled happily, and we resumed our search for a new teammate. Sooner than I had hoped, the sun started to set and the supply of light was dimming. I let anger get the best of me and threw the poke ball I had in my hand in the other direction. I started to walk away, but stopped in my tracks when I heard the light warping sound a poke ball made when it was returning a pokemon. Returning or catching a pokemon.

I swiftly ran over to the spot where I had thrown the poke ball. I found it closed and unbroken. Maybe I had imagined the sound, I thought, but when I clicked the poke ball open I found myself staring into the deep confused eyes of a very small meditite.


	7. Taking On the World With a Baby

"Tite?" the small pokemon whimpered scared.

"Are you serious?" I asked no one. The one pokemon I had been trying to avoid was the one I had to accidently catch. I knelt down to the small thing. It didn't look like the other meditite I saw before. This one was much smaller. It must be a baby, I thought.

"Medi?" it whimpered again and began to cry.

"Don't cry," it told it as I picked it up. I patted its back methodically. It calmed down a little bit, and that I was thankful for. I got even more agitated. Not only did I have to get a baby, I had to get a cry baby. The thought of releasing it drifted through my mind, but I pushed deep in the back of my head and locked it away. Darn my moral code. I just couldn't release this helpless baby. I hate to say it, but I think I was already becoming attached. I walked to the Pokemon Center with the thing in my arms and Piper and Aria traveled happily behind. When I got to the center I carefully returned the pokemon and gave it to Nurse Joy for any necessary healing. I also gave her my other two pokemon.

The healing machine chimed, and I was returned my poke balls. I let everyone out including the baby. I checked it with my PokeDex. It was female, which was the only thing I was glad about, and level two. Level two! I shouted in my head. I was totally right about the whole baby thing. The only move it knew was Bide. I just about hated that move with young pokemon. Half of the time they fainted before they could execute the move. The idea of releasing it once again regretfully floated by, but one look into those eyes, and I was sold.

"Well," I said, "If I'm going to train you, you're going to need a name." She seemed to perk up. She must know human speech, I thought. I was eternally thankful for that. I already had to train this thing, and I didn't need a language barrier. I decided to hit the sack for today. It was very late when I caught the meditite. I plopped into my bed and invited my pokemon. My vulpix and azumarill jumped up immediatel, but the meditite was a little more hesitant. I patted the bed. "You can get up here," I told her, "this is where my team and I sleep. You're part of my team now, so you get to sleep here with us." She smiled and awkwardly crawled onto the bed. I smiled. Suddenly the thought of a little girl from my second year of Trainer's School popped into my head. She was the only girl that was ever nice to me that year. Her name was Nikki. "I'll name you Nikki," I told my meditite. She smiled again and crawled onto my stomach. Piper and Aria fell asleep on my sides. Soon sleep took me.

~oOo~

I woke up because of the sound of a small, seemingly young, female voice and the sun, but mostly the sun. _"H-hello?"_ the voice said innocent and pure.

"Yes?" I said as I sat up, not even worried about someone being in my room, but when I looked around I didn't see anyone but my three pokemon, Nikki being the only awake one.

_"You can hear me!"_ the voice yelled loudly. For some reason it gave me a headache.

"Ow!" I said rubbing my forehead.

_"Oh, I am sorry," _the girl said much quieter.

"Who's there?" I asked confused.

_"It's me," _the voice said then Nikki started pointing to herself.

"You?" I said pointing to my meditite.

_"Yes, I am talking and you can hear me," _the voice said. I made a point of staring at Nikki and her mouth never moved.

"I'm going crazy," I told myself, "I'm going crazy or I'm dreaming."

_"No, Trainer, you're not crazy or dreaming," _the voice said, _"I am talking to you."_

"How are you talking to me?" I asked annoyed, "I can't understand pokemon, and your mouth isn't even moving. How can I hear you?" I put air quotes around "understand" trying to convince myself I was dreaming and not nuts.

_"I am psychic!"_ the voice cheered happily, and Nikki smiled. Suddenly a glimmer of a memory appeared. A class I took in my last year of Trainer's School. The class was pokemon communications. It was the one class that I hated. It was so boring. All you learned was how to read pokemon body language, but there was one thing that I actually found interesting. It took a while, but I remembered it. Almost all psychic pokemon could communicate with people mentally, and meditite were part psychic types.

"You can talk with your mind?" I asked curiously.

_"I don't know. I was just hoping you could hear me. All of the other meditates could do it, but I am young. I didn't know how to do it before. I tried it on other trainers, but they didn't hear me, and I didn't like them. It's easier with you because I like you, Trainer," _Nikki explained then smiled.

"You like me?" I asked happily. I don't know why, but I craved all of my pokemon's approval. Even Nikki's.

_"Of course I do, Trainer! You caught me. All of the other people wouldn't because I was young," _ she explained happily. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her capture was an accident.

"Yeah about your age," I said, "how old are you?"

_"I think a month," _she said blankly.

"A month?" I gasped, "how do you already understand human speech?"

_"My mother taught me," _she said, "_medities learn fast. All psychics are smart."_

"When will you be a normal sized meditite?" I asked trying to make it sound as just a question and not a worry.

_"Not long, a few weeks maybe, you'll be able to tell that I've gotten bigger every day until I'm almost done growing,"_ she assured me. I did my best to not sigh in relief.

"So are you up for some training?" I asked hopefully.

_"Yes! I love training! I am a fighter!"_ she cheered excitedly.

"Alright," I said, "we have one day to get the gym's badge. Piper and Aria aren't too far behind. We'll train you a little bit, but we don't have time to get you to their level."

_"That's fine. When we have the badge I'll catch up fast!"_ she said happily.

"That's great," I said as I looked over to my other two pokemon, "We should probably wake up the others." I shook Piper and Aria awake. They yawned loudly as we walked straight outside. We didn't have time for breakfast. I checked all of my pokemon's level one more time. Aria was level twenty, Piper was level eighteen, and for some reason Nikki was level three not level two. Communicating with me through thought must have leveled her up, I guessed to myself. I checked my gym leader handbook and read that the Eterna City gym leader's name was Gardenia, and her highest level pokemon was twenty-two. I figured I should get Piper and Aria to level twenty-three first then get Nikki to the highest level I could get her.

"Alright, Aria," I said, "you're up first." Aria happily took out every pokemon she saw. It soon got to the point that the only pokemon that crossed us were the occasional machop with a pride problem and the more common simple bidoof. It wasn't as fast as I had hoped, but it wasn't a horribly long time. I told Aria to stand down, and Piper took the reins. The pokemon weren't as wary of Piper because she was a cute water pokemon, but they soon learned she was better left avoided. Piper took much longer than Aria, but eventually she was level twenty-three. Now I turned to Nikki. She was practically bouncing with excitement from watching her teammates battle. She was a fighter, and she wanted to fight. "Alright, Nikki, it's your turn." I said.

She jumped up. "Tite!" she cheered, and at the same time I heard, _"Yay!"_

"Alright you saw how Aria and Piper battled. You know what to do. Just follow my orders," I told her. I didn't know how much help she would need, so I figured we would just need to gauge her skills with a battle. Thankfully, a weak looking bidoof lumbered past, but when it saw Nikki it stiffened. It knew it couldn't take on Piper or Aria, but it could tell this pokemon was weak. It knew it could win. It scratched its foot on the ground and charged at Nikki with Tackle. She yelped in surprise as the both went sprawling. The bidoof was on top of Nikki, and she didn't like that.

"Tite!" she screamed and started beating the bidoof on the head. It probably wasn't a real move she knew, but it worked. She hit it about three or four times before the bidoof squealed and try to run away. Nikki wasn't having that. She ran up to it, she was really fast, and kicked the bidoof in the side as hard as she could. It huffed painfully and fell. She smacked it right across the face and walked over to me. It was just now that I realized she had really long legs. _"Did I do good?"_ she asked hopefully.

"You did great," I told her. She clapped happily. I checked her with my PokeDex and she was level four now so the bidoof wasn't as weak as I had thought. Now she couild use the move Meditate. "Can you use Meditate?" I asked her.

_"I think so,"_ she said.

"Use it," I told her. The move raised attack so even though she technically know any physical move, I figured it would power up her slaps and kicks. Nikki nodded and sat down. She took a meditation pose and concentrated. She seemed to glow a bit, but it may have just been the afternoon sun.

_"Yup, I used it. Can I fight more now?" _she asked.

"Go ahead," I told her with a laugh. I mostly left Nikki to her own good judgment because I didn't really know what commands to give her. She slapped, kicked, and punched her way through all the wild bidoof around without any helpfrom Aria or Piper. Before I knew it, she was level eight and happily throwing pokemon around until they reached unconsciousness with Confusion. It wasn't too long before she was level eleven and dodging any pokemon fast enough to challenge her with Detect. She was having the most fun she had probably ever had in her short life. She was born to fight. I knew that when I had first caught her, I was a little skeptical, but now I realize that she was probably the best pokemon I could have caught. I stopped considering her capture an accident and considered it more like fate. She grew all the way to level fourteen until I deemed it time to challenge the gym.

I made a quick trip to the Pokemon Center so I could heal any damage my pokemon might have sustained. I released them, and they all had a renewed vigor. Piper was twirling around, Aria was stretching her muscles, and Nikki was walking on her hands. I had always wanted to learn how to do that, so I was a little jealous. I decided to take a trip to the PokeMart and buy a good supply of potions. I was happy about my amount of money. It wasn't like I was rich or anything, but with the money I already had and the money I got from beating Roark, I was set until probably the next town. I told myself I needed to quit stalling, and I walked, albeit slowly, straight to the Eterna City gym. I opened the doors and walked into the lobby. I made sure all of my pokemon were listening before I started telling them my battle plan.

"Alright," I said, "here's how this is going to go. I might have to use all of you. Aria you're a fire type so I'll obviously use you. Piper you know Ice Beam so I'll use you if Aria is worn out. Nikki you are a psychic type, so if Gardenia has a part poison type I'll use you If both Aria and Piper are stretched too thin. You're fast so you should be able to get a few Confusions in. In short, just do your best and follow my orders. I don't want to lose," I explained. They all excitedly nodded in agreement, and I figured we were as good as we'll ever be. I opened the door that led into the battle arena and marched on. Gardenia was petting a budew when she looked up and saw me.

"Hello," she said in a happy voice, "are you here to challenge me?"

"I am," I told her professionally.

"Then let's get this show on the road. You do know the rules right?" she asked.

"Yes I do. I've already beaten Roark," I told her. I didn't really need to tell that I already beat Roark, but I didn't think a little bragging was that bad.

"Well just so you now, I'm a lot tougher than Roark," she said as she took her place on the battle field. I walked to my box and called Aria forward.

"Let's go," I told her. She giggled and released her first pokemon. It was a turtwig, the Sinnoh region grass starter. I knew that they had high defense, but Aria was strong. "Use Confuse Ray," I told her. Aria had learned a lot of new moves since we've been in Eterna. Her eyes glowed deathly similar to the duskull's that we fought so long ago. The turtwig stared deeply into them and started bouncing clumsily around.

"Light Screen!" Gardenia commanded, but the turtwig just plopped on its side and got back up.

"Fire Spin!" I commanded. Aria engulfed the turtwig in a vortex. The attack itself wasn't that strong, but its long lasting effect was useful. The confused pokemon continued to bumble around, but this time with a tornado of fire around it.

"Light Screen!" Gardenia yelled calmly. The pokemon must have heard her through the veil of confusion because a dim yellow barrier appeared and disappeared around the turtwig.

"Ember!" I commanded. Aria spat a mouthful of flames at the turtwig. The yellow barrier appeared again, and it absorbed some of the damage, but the vortex seemed to strengthen.

"Razor Leaf!" Gardenia called out. The confusion had now completely worn off, and the turtwig sent forth a Razor Leaf. Though the attack was strong the leaves came out burning and fell to the ground, burnt and black, before they could make contact with Aria. It took a few more Embers, but the turtwig soon fainted to Aria's fire type strength. Gardenia happily returned it and sent out her second pokemon, a cherrim. It was in a dark purple pod. "Use Sunny Day," Gardenia said. That seemed like a stupid idea because Aria's attacks would just get powered up even if she wanted her cherrim to switch forms. The cherrim happily peeled back its pod to reveal a sunny face that looked like one big flower.

"Ember," I said confused. Aria spat fire at the cherrim, and the attack made a direct hit. The cherrim whined and started limping around. "Uh? Use Ember again?" I said. Aria sent another Ember at the cherrim, and this time it fainted. Gardenia didn't even try.

"Here's my last guy," she said as she returned her second pokemon. "Go," she said as she released her last pokemon in a flash of red light. I could tell that her last pokemon was much stronger than the first two just by looking at it. The roserade looked very regal with its green cape and petal covered hands held up around its face.

"Alrighty then, use Toxic!" Gardenia yelled mischievously. The roserade sent purple sludge from its petals toward Aria. Aria tried to dodge it, but some of the sludge made contact with her tail. I knew she was poisoned, but it was a little spot. She could make it through a little longer.

"Ember!" I yelled to Aria. She sent an Ember at the roserade, and the attack narrowly hit the roserade.

"Magical Leaf," Gardenia said. The roserade fired a group of mysteriously glowing leaves from its petals. Though Aria had easily dodged the attack, the leaves swung around and hit Aria from behind, knocking her down. She got back up, but slowly. I knew she couldn't keep this up, and I didn't want her to faint during a gym battle for the second time, especially now that she had the type advantage. I glumly returned her so I could send out Piper to finish this job up with Ice Beam. Piper happily came out of her ball with a squeak.

"Use Ice Beam!" I yelled quickly. Gardenia was surprise that that attack was called, and she didn't have time to tell her pokemon to dodge before the Ice Beam made a direct hit on the roserade. Nothing froze, but the attack did a great deal of damage on the grass pokemon. The roserade slowly got back up and looked pained and aggravated.

"Use Magical Leaf," Gardenia said. The strangely glowing leaves appeared again, but this time I was ready.

"Ice Beam first, then use Rollout to get out of the way!" I shouted. Piper froze the mysterious leaves in mid-air, but as I expected the leaves continued towards Piper, but now with a slight and gradual incline. I was thankful that during our journey to Eterna, I had time to teach a secret battle code similar to Aria's. In this situation "get out of the way" means to dodge the attack and swing back around to hit the opposing pokemon. Piper happily rolled into a tight ball and rolled quickly toward the roserade. I again caught Gardenia off guard, and the attack landed a direct hit. I was annoyed that the roserade didn't stay down, but it did look even more pained.

"Magical Leaf," Gardenia said hoping she could find a way through my attack.

"Charge through the attack!" I commanded nervously. Piper rolled even faster toward the roserade. The leaves brushed past without slowing her down, but I was pretty sure Piper sustained some damage. Just before the Rollout hit the roserade, it raised its petals.

"Use Toxic," Gardenia said happily. The purple sludge made direct contact with Piper and I knew her poison was much worse than Aria's.

"Ice Beam!" I yelled hoping for one last stand. The roserade raised one of its bouquets to guard it face, and the attack completely froze the red bouquet of petals. The roserade dropped its hand to the ground and groaned. I quickly returned Piper and nervously sent out Nikki. She was just about my last option. I figured it would just take one Confusion to take out the roserade because they were part poison, and it was already really weak. Nikki happily came out of her ball with a cheer. I realized now that Piper and Nikki were a lot alike.

"Use Magical Leaf," Gardenia said sadly obviously feeling sad that she had to put her pokemon through this. This time the pokemon raise one bouquet instead of two, and weakly released a flurry of glowing leaves. They came after Nikki, and I had a moment of panic, but then I remembered Nikki was more than she got credit for.

"Use Detect," I said trying to remain calm. Nikki's eyes began to glow and she swiftly jumped out of the way of the leaves with the one exception to Magical Leaf. They continued to chase after her but she dodged every time. They soon began to slow down. "Jump behind the roserade," I said. I wanted to make this work before the effect of Detect worn off, and I was annoyed that I didn't have time to teach Nikki any battle code. Gardenia knew what was coming. Nikki jumped behind the roserade, but the leaves still followed. They hit the roserade instead of Nikki, and the pokemon looked just about to faint. "Now, use Confusion!" I yelled. Nikki placed her hands on the roserade's back, and her eyes had a renewed glow.

The roserade flew forward with a dim glow around it all the way in front of my feet. It fell and didn't get back up. Nikki cheered and Gardenia returned her roserade with a smile. Though she had lost, she was happy that today's trainers hadn't lost their stuff. I returned Nikki, and Gardenia waved me over. "Good job kid," she said handing me my TM, badge, and prize money. I waved her goodbye and left the building. I quickly hurried to the Pokemon Center so I could heal Aria and Piper. Nurse Joy gladly accepted my pokemon and placed their poke balls on the healing machine. Nikki stood by my leg. Nurse Joy gave me back the two poke balls and handed me a small pink pill. She told me I would need to give Piper it because she had a really bad case of poison. I thanked her and went to my room. I gave Piper her pill and we all fell asleep early awaiting a tomorrow that would bring the beginning of ower first real tournament.


	8. All Things Tournamenty

I didn't know what was up with Piper about waking me up early with a Water Gun, but she still did it. Though, I was a bit thankful that she didn't wake me up nearly as early as she did last time. It was about seven thirty, and I probably would have woken up soon after that anyway. I slowly got out of bed. I walked to the bathroom door and turned to Piper. "Keep the peace. I'm going to take a shower. When I'm done, I'll give you one too if you want," I told her. She nodded and turned to her Aria who never woke up and Piper who fell back asleep to make sure that they weren't acting up. I shut the door and took a quick shower. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I was ecstatic that today was the beginning of the double battle tournament. I was once again haunted by the fact that I had to have a partner. I just hoped I wouldn't get a horrible person and left it at that.

I sifted through my pair of each type of clothing and chose my navy blue long sleeved shirt and my pair of jeans that didn't have nearly as many as my other pair. I wanted to attempt to look nice because it was a big day, and the event was televised, and I didn't want to look like I couldn't afford nice clothes, though most trainers couldn't. I was glad to see that Aria and Nikki were still asleep. "Azu?" Piper questioned hopefully. I laughed and waved her into the bathroom. She jumped through the door and into the shower. I happily washed her off as she splashed in the water. I decided that Aria didn't really need a bath, and I didn't know how Nikki would react to a bath, so I didn't want to bother with it. I woke them up, they both yawned loudly.

_"Did I do good yesterday?"_ Nikki asked in my head.

"Yes, you all did wonderful. Roserades are hard pokemon to beat," I assured them. They all happily cheered as walked downstairs. I checked the clock on my phone and it was eight. We still had thirty minutes until breakfast started so a decided to charge my phone. Just before I ran up the stairs to get my charger I remembered my parents had yet to know that I was going to be in the tournament. They were overdue for a phone call from me anyway so I clicked my mother's name in my contacts and put the phone up to my ear. My mother picked up after three rings, and she was very cheery.

"Hi honey," she said, "you haven't called me in a while. Did you see me fight the Elite Four?" she asked a bit nervously.

"I saw you battle Flint, yeah, but I went to battle Roark after that. How did you do?" I asked her.

"Well, as you know, Flint was almost too easy. When I was battling Lucian, I had trouble with his bronzing and lost Nyx and J.J., but Wilma stepped in took it out with a Fire Blast, but otherwise I didn't have any trouble with him. When I was battling Cynthia, I actually thought that I could win. She only had her roserade and her garchomp, and I only had Wilma, Cole, and J.J. when things got a bit shaky. The roserade took out Cole before he could get in a solid Ice Beam. Wilma took it out with a Fire Blast, but got knocked out when the garchomp used Dragon Rush. J.J. didn't stand much of a chance anyway. He went down with one Giga Impact. I was glad I got that far. I've felt so much better about myself since then. Oh, enough about me. Tell me everything about your journey.

She listened patiently as I relayed my entire journey. I runhappily left out the part about Eli. I didn't want to worry her. "Tell me about your team! You have to have caught something by now," she said.

"Yes I have. I, uh, found a marill that someone must have released. I named her Piper, and she evolved into an azumarill just before I battled Gardenia. I also caught a meditite. She actually beat Gardenia's last pokemon, and she was only level fourteen," I explained to her.

"Oh! I'm so glad you got a marill, and I've always loved psychic types," she swooned.

"Oh, I have to tell you something. I kind of entered a tournament. It's today. The astual tournament starts at ten thirty. You can watch it. It will be televised," I told her.

"No! I'm not just going to just watch you on the T.V. I'm going to be a good mother and drag your father along with me. We are coming to Eterna. We'll be there in probably an hour. You know J.J. was never the fastest flyer," she said with a giggle.

"Are you sure it won't be too much trouble?" I asked. I wouldn't admit it, but I secretly wanted my mother to come to this tournament very badly.

"Not at all," she said happily, "Just look for the old noctowl and the chubby peliper," she said with another giggle.

"I will. The tournament will be at that arena that they never use," I said.

"Okay, I'll see you there." She hung up the phone, and I put it on its charger cord. I looked at the clock and it was already eight twenty. I waited patiently for about ten minutes until Nurse Joy came out with four plates of pancakes. We ate them all up happily, even Nikki loved them. I didn't know why, but my pokemon seemed to enjoy human food much more than they did food actually made for them. I didn't worry about it, though. The food was free, and I'm sure Nurse Joy didn't care. She just wanted to make sure that everyone in this center was as happy as they could possibly be. I thanked Nurse Joy and grabbed my things. My phone didn't charge up very much, but I figured every little bit counts.

I didn't bother returning any of my pokemon as we walked to the big Eterna City arena that was just south of the town statue. I didn't take the time to study it, and I didn't really care that much about statues anyway. When I got to the arena, there was a little woman sitting behind the ticket booth that was rarely ever occupied. "Are you a contestant in the tournament young man?" she asked sunnily.

"I am," I told her with a smile.

"What is your phone number? I need it just to make sure you aren't lying about being in the tournament. The one last time we actually tried to hold a tournament, there were about a hundred more people than there were names, so this is just a precaution," she said in a tone like she had offended me.

"That's okay. My number I 555-3275," I said making sure to enunciate the numbers clearly. My mother always bugged me about how I mumbled, and didn't speak clearly. The woman dragged her finger across a long page.

"Kevin Banks?" she asked politely.

"That's me," I confirmed.

"That's great." She peeled a sticker from a plastic sheet and picked up a light green piece of paper. "This is your number sticker. You wear it at all time when you are in the arena, and it gets you in for free. There is a twenty dollar fee," she said as if she had offended me again. I actually remembered that from the message. I handed her to ten dollar bills. "Great," she said as she accepted the twenty dollars and handed me the sheet of green paper. "That is your schedule. You are not allowed to be late. We will wait five minutes, and if you haven't shown up by then, you and your partner are automatically disqualified. I didn't really like this rule because I don't think the partner should be punished but, I don't make the rules." Then she handed me a sign with the same number on my sticker. You hold that up when the mayor tells you to so your partner can find you. Anyway, do you understand everything?" she asked as she put the money in and automated register.

"I do," I said putting the sticker on my shirt and kept the sign in my hand.

"Great, you can just step right in there and take a seat in the bleachers. The opening ceremony for the trainers will start in about fifteen minutes. That's when they go into more detail about the battle rules. Well, that's everything. I hope you make it far," she said with another sunny smile.

"Thank you," I told her, "have a great day." She waved me goodbye as I walked into the outside arena. I wasn't the first one by far. The arena, surprisingly, seated one thousand people. At least a third of that had to be filled up with people and pokemon, and it was still a bit early. I chose a quiet spot at the end of the first row, and tried to blend in. I was a bit shy when it came to a lot of trainers that were probably better than me. I was unhappy to say that I saw a few dragons and a lot of ghost and dark types. In one word, I was terrified. I decided to turn my attention to my shoelaces. Piper must have sensed my distress because she jumped right up next to me and nuzzled her furry body into my side. I scratched behind her long ears and she made an odd humming sound I took as a sound of pleasure. Aria and Nikki followed Piper's example and, Nikki sat on my other side, and Aria laid down in my lap.

"Hey," a small, oddly familiar, female voice said. I looked up and remembered her perfectly now. Even though I could see her shortly cropped light brown hair, it was very clearly the girl I had caught a bidoof for a few days ago.

"Um, hello," I muttered.

"Are you competing?" she asked rudely. She was acting much more impolite now than when I saw her at route 211.

"Uh, yeah. Are you?" I asked looking down at my feet again.

"Duh," she said with a roll of her eyes. It was only now that I realized the mr. mime standing behind her. "I hope I get to battle you. Neither of us can lose until we battle each other, got that?" she said pointing at me.

"Yeah," I said looking down at my feet once again.

"Good," she said and started to walk away. "Oh and. By the way," she said turning back at me, "my sister loved her bidoof." She turned around and started to walk away again. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. I wouldn't lose at all during this tournament, but she would. I couldn't escape the feeling that, if I did face the girl, I might lose. I knew that I was good, and hopefully I would be even stronger with another partner, but what if she got a really strong partner? I just tried to shake the feeling away. Even if I didn't beat her, I would at least get past round one. That was my current goal. I would set my stakes higher after that. I always operated that way. I never set my stakes as high as they could be. Well, except for my stakes set at being the best trainer in all of Sinnoh, but that still wasn't as high as my stakes could be. I didn't want to be the best trainer in the world. Yet, anyway.

There was an odd dinging sound and trainers were instructed to walk onto the arena by an intercom. I returned my pokemon because I didn't want any of my pokemon to get stepped on. I was sure that Nikki would be knocking a bunch of people's heads together if that happened. Aria was a little reluctant, but I didn't want to take the chance of her accidently roasting someone. The arena wasn't really crowded, but that was only because it was so large. There were fifty arenas the size of a gym leaders arena evenly space apart. It was impossible to have everyone battle at the same time, but the day would still go by quickly. There was a large stage right across of the bleachers. Unlike most football fields, this arena didn't have bleachers on both sides. Behind the stage was a huge T.V. that projected whoever was on the stage.

"Welcome challengers!" shouted a tall man in a black suit from on top of the stage. He was met with a roar of applause from the crowd of trainers "I am the mayor of Eterna City and also the coordinator of the first annual tag battle tournament. Now, here comes the chaotic part. To kick things off I need you to find your partner. Your partner has the same number as you. Keep in mind that we reached our total of one thousand competitors so it may take a while. The real tournament doesn't start until ten, and we can delay it if need be, so please don't get panicked. Alright then, go on." The mayor sat down in a chair behind the microphone with shaking legs. He was obviously worried this wouldn't go over perfectly.

To my surprise it was actually very calm. The trainer's just walked around holding up their signs like civilized people. It baffled my mind that there were one thousand trainers here, but I didn't worry about. After the first round half of the competitors would be gone, and I wouldn't be one of them. I held up my sign and looked of the same number. My number was 253. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I would find him/her eventually. I still didn't let out any of my pokemon for help. I didn't want to lose one of them. I took a while, but I did find my partner, or rather, she found me. "Hey! Are you 253?" she yelled from a few people behind.

"Yeah!" I yelled back.

"Good! Come over here!" she yelled and waved me over. I quickly walked over to her, bumping into a few people in the process. My partner looked very nice. She was sitting on the first row of bleachers with a big smile and a stantler standing next to her.

"Hi," I said with a wave.

"Hi, hon," she said as she stood up to shake my hand. She was taller than me, but only because she obviously had a few years on me. She was shorter than average for a mid-teens female. She wasn't the skinniest girl I had very seen, but she wasn't fat by any means, just a bit plump. She had dark brown that was pulled up into a ponytail. She was wearing a light yellow Aeropostle shirt and jeans. The stantler next to her looked very strong and wary. "I'm Tuesday Brooks, and you are?"

"I'm Kevin Banks," I told her.

"How old are you?"

"Ten," I said a bit hesitantly.

"That's alright, I don't mind a newbie. How long have you been training?" she asked.

"A little over a month," I answered.

"Well you can't be that bad if you got at least two badges that soon," she laughed patting my shoulder. We spent a few minutes just trading basic information. She was fifteen with seven badges. She had been training since she was twelve and had a team of five. "Oh, where are my manners," she said putting her hands on her hips, "this is Yay, my stantler and he's also my starter." She happily patted the back of her stantler, and I could tell they loved she loved him very much.

"Yay? That's an unusual name," I told her.

"Trust me there are a lot more names ten times as weird as Yay's out there," she said with another laugh, "would you like to meet the rest of my team?" she asked letting her hand drop to the poke balls on her belt.

"I would love that," I told her happily.

"Great," she said as she plucked off each poke ball and pushed the release button on each one. For a second all I saw was scarlet light, then the light started to fade, and I saw pokemon. I saw a smeargle, a gastrodon, a sableye, and a crobat. They all looked incredibly strong. "That's Charlotte, my smeargle, but I just call her Charlie. That's Dom, my gastrodon, he's faster than he looks. That's Myriad, my sableye, and she scared really easily and has a habit of hiding in the shadows, and that's Fiona, my crobat, and is the fastest thing you will ever see," she explained admiring each one of her pokemon. "Can I meet your team?" she asked as she started to return her own team.

"Sure," I said as I opened up my three poke balls. "That is Aria my vulpix, she's my starter. That is Piper my azumarill, and that's Nikki, my meditite, they're really strong too," I said giving each of my pokemon a scratch on the head.

"Wow! I remember when I only had three pokemon! Good times, good times," she said as she sat back down. I returned everyone except Aria and sat next to Tuesday.

"So, you're okay with getting partnered up with a newb?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? I prefer it. I hate those people that try to take control and tell me to do everything. I only have one rule," she said holdng up one finger, "leave everything defense related to me. Don't even worry about dodging. No attack will hit your pokemon, as long as one of my pokemon is on the field. If so, take my team away," she said crossing her heart.

"You're that good?" I asked baffled.

"I have seven badges to show for it. I just don't have my eighth because I've been visiting a few friends I have in Hoenn," she said patting Yay on his back.

"I hope everyone finds their partners soon. I want to get this show on the road," I said scratching Aria in between the ears. On cue, the mayor's voice boomed through the speakers, and he was standing up again.

"I see that everyone has found their partners. Now here comes the rules, and then i have something you all might enjoy. First off, you cannot use the same pokemon for a second time until you have used every member of your team in a t least one battle," that rule received some aggravated grumbles, and I wasn't too fond of it myself. I would have to use Nikki, and I didn't know if she was strong enough. "Next we will show the numbers of who is battling in round one and which arena you'll be in when we are finished with everything. "Now, here is the rule you might enjoy. All competitors will be expected to have some kind of matching outfit or color scheme between their partners. You have exactly one hour. The tournament will be delayed shortly. We have teleporters if you don't have flyers. Go." Some people cheered, and some people sneered.

"What a weird rule. Well we better hurry and get to the clothing places here," I said as I got up.

"Oh hon, we are going to Veilstone," she said with a laugh.

"We don't have time to fly there, and the teleporters will be packed by the time we get up there," I protested.

"Hon, I have a teleporter of my own," she said pulling out a poke ball.

"Who?" I asked.

"Charlie. I had her Sketch teleport," she said as she released the smeargle.

"Oh, that's cool, but do we really have to go to Veilstone?" I questioned.

"Yes, they have the best mall in Sinnoh, and we will have the best outfits,"" she said as she returned Yay and took hold of one of Charlie's hands. "I'd return her," she said pointing to Aria.

"Okay," I said as I returned her and stood up. I took hold of Charlie's hand like Tuesday was doing.

"Charlie? Can you take us to Veilstone please?" Tuesday asked politely.

"Smear!" Charlie agreed. She shut her eyes, and next thing I knew we were in the bustling city of Veilstone.

"This is cool! I've never been here before," I said as I admired the oddly elevated buildings.

"It is big, but we don't have time to waste. The mall is right down the street," she said pointed to a very large building. We walked quickly with Charlie following happily behind us. "Wow," I said as we walked into the huge building. The first floor was all dedicated to food. The floors above it were everything else.

"Alright we will need the fourth floor. That's all of the clothing stores. Grab Charlie's hand. Charlie, fourth floor please," Tuesday said in a hurry. I quickly grabbed Charlie's hand, and we were on another floor. "Now, let's get to American Eagle first," she said walking away from me. I ran after her and it took me a while to find her when I entered the store. I soon found her focusing on a rack of plain white shirts that had a poke ball in the center of it. "What size are you?" she asked without looking up.

"Child's small," I mumbled. I often got picked on because of my small stature.

"Perfect, she said as she took two shirts off of the rack, "go try this on," she said with a smile. That is the one sentence I hated to hear. I've never liked trying on clothes, but I decided there was no point in resisting. She wouldn't let me pay no matter how much I protested. She just said it was on her and walked up to the register. I never had to retry on things because they didn't fit, only because she found something better. Our color was red and she maxed that color out. Our outfit consisted of matching poke ball t-shirts, red knee high socks, red pants rolled half way up the shin, red hoodies, and red Chuck Taylor's. Tuesday had a discount card at every store we went to. Everything ended up costing 150 dollars. I protested every time she wouldn't let me pay, but she till refused. We were changed and ready to go in forty five minutes. We stashed our clothes in our back packs and teleported back to the arena.

Red wasn't the color everyone used, but it was still popular, although no one took it to our extreme. Most people chose different shades of blue. People were still flying and teleporting in when we got back, so me a Tuesday decided to talk about which pokemon we would use. "I'm using Yay, so you should use your starter to," she said as she produced a brush from her backpack and started touching up her stantler.

"Okay I will," I agreed. I had already planned on using Aria first ealirer. I had contemplated getting Nikki out of the way, but I didn't want to take any chances on not making it to the next round. Tuesday pulled out another brush from her backpack and handed it to me.

"Here, brush your vulpix, she'll like it," she said. I accepted the brush gratefully and started working on Aria's poof. It didn't take long before everyone was back, and the mayor was talking again.

"Well everyone is back, and the first battlers will be posted on the screen," he said as he motioned to the big screen. The numbers appeared like the arena looked. It showed your number, the number of your opponent connected by a line, the number of the battling field, and which side you were on. We were facing 467, we were in arena twelve, and we were battling on the side left side. We returned our pokemon and swiftly made our way to our field. We got there before our opponents, and the referee was just arriving. We took our side I stood through the short wait before our opponents showed up. We weren't facing the brown haired girl, which annoyed me a bit. We were facing women about my mother's age and a boy about Tuesday's age. They both looked strong, but I remembered what Tuesday said. No attacks would hit as long as she had a pokemon on the field.

"Are both teams ready?" the referee asked loudly.

"Yes!" all of us yelled in unison.

"Then let the battle begin!" he called. I clicked the open button on Aria's poke ball, ready to win this tournament.


End file.
